All wars end eventually, and usually they end at the negotiating table. And, as in any negotiation, disagreements over goals, bitterness, betrayal and recriminations often arise.
Each of those could manifest in Anchorage when President Trump and President Vladimir V. Putin meet at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, the first face-to-face discussion between American and Russian leaders since the invasion of Ukraine three and a half years ago. And the scenarios that could unfurl are as unpredictable as the leaders themselves, both brimming with confidence that in a personal encounter, they can manipulate events, and each other.
It could be a failure from the start. Mr. Trump said before leaving Washington that if he showed up for a joint news conference alone, the world would know that no deal was forthcoming with Mr. Putin, with whom Mr. Trump once predicted he could solve the intractable war in 24 hours.
Or, Mr. Trump said on Thursday, if there was real progress, he might remain in Alaska and ask President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine to fly in, which he said “would be by far the easiest way” to mediate.
But it is hard to imagine that the issues as complex as those swirling around the biggest war in Europe since 1945 can be resolved in one session at an air base in Alaska.
The fault lines simply run too deep, even beyond the question of where to draw the boundaries between Russia and Ukraine, 11 years after Mr. Putin annexed Crimea and began to seize parts of southern and eastern Ukraine. They go to the core disagreement over whether Ukraine has a right to exist within its current borders. Mr. Putin has been clear that eastern Ukraine belongs to Russia, forming the basis of his justification for a war that has already brought well over a million casualties.
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The post How Trump’s Meeting With Putin Could Unfold appeared first on New York Times.
